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Obama’s Overture Leaves Iranians Uneasy

President Barack Obama’s willingness to talk to Iran seems to have put the Iranian leadership in an uncomfortable spot — both in Tehran and in Davos, Switzerland.
In Davos, the Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, cautiously welcomed the new language coming out of Washington — before immediately insisting that it was not enough.
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“We want to see practical steps before we decide whether we want to talk,” Mr. Mottaki said through a translator during an interview at the World Economic Forum.
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“I don’t want to use the term ‘condition,’” he added. “We do not want to impose specific ideas. We want President Obama to say what exactly he is going to do.”
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His remarks came three days after Mr. Obama told an Arabic-language television network that the United States would extend a hand to Iran. That comment drew a retort from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran a day later that the United States should apologize for its actions toward his country over the past 60 years.
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Meanwhile, Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, a former Iranian president, entered the fray from Tehran, criticizing the Obama administration for keeping all its options open in order to pressure Iran to end its controversial nuclear program.
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The reaction of Mr. Mottaki added to a sense among diplomats and foreign policy analysts in Davos that contrary to conventional wisdom — and the official Iranian stance — it was politically even more difficult for Iran to re-engage than for the United States, particularly five months before elections in Iran.
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As John Chipman, director general of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, put it: “Obama seems to have called Iran’s bluff.”
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Mr. Mottaki, a soft-spoken man with a reputation for staying on message, stopped short of making concrete demands on Washington. But he spoke of Iran’s desire to cooperate with the United States on regional issues like Iraq and Afghanistan.
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As the Iranian economy is suffering a triple blow from economic sanctions, falling energy prices and the global credit crunch, he also hinted that Tehran wants the United States to lift some of the sanctions.
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“We have a long history of some measures against Iran by the United States,” he said. “We want to see what kind of changes President Obama is going to make in those areas.”
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But the pressure on Iran to make a favorable gesture to Mr. Obama is increasing. The German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on Friday called on Iran to respond to Mr. Obama’s opening.
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”It’s good that Obama has reached out his hand and shown readiness for direct talks with Iran,” Mr. Steinmeier said. ”I think it is time for us also to appeal to Iran and the Iranian leadership not to reject this hand.”
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Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog that keeps tabs on the Iranian nuclear program, said it was not surprising that the Iranians had not immediately responded favorably.
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”They want to know the modalities of the talks, the substance of the offer,” Mr. ElBaradei said. ”Who will talk to whom? There are a lot of scenarios.”
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But he also said that Iran would drag its feet at its own peril.
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”I told the Iranians, you cannot just sit and wait, ” Mr. ElBaradei said during a separateinterview in Davos. ”There is a hand that has been stretched out to you and you have toshow that you are also able to stretch out your hand.”.He added, ”President Obama does not have 100 percent consensus in the U.S. about a policy of open dialogue without conditions with Iran and the Iranians need to support him, they need to strengthen his hand by showing that the other side has responded positively.”
.Asked how Mr. Obama should read the Iranian reaction to his offer so far, Mr. Mottaki said: ”I personally consider President Obama an intelligent person and I think that he totally understands the questions.”.by Katrin Bennhold